Ma praises police for arrest of train bomb suspects

By Mo Yan-chih / Staff reporter

Sat, Apr 20, 2013 - Page 3

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday applauded prosecutors and police for capturing two suspects alleged to have planted explosive devices on a high-speed rail train and outside a lawmaker’s office, and said he expected the police to be increasingly vigilant to ensure public safety.

“The bombings in Boston show that criminals are resorting to increasingly cruel measures, and the police must be more careful and cautious in handling different crimes,” Ma said in a post on his Facebook page.

The two prime suspects in the case, Hu Tsung-hsien (胡宗賢) and Chu Ya-tong (朱亞東), are alleged to have placed suitcases containing explosive devices on northbound high-speed rail train No. 616 and outside Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Chia-chen’s (盧嘉辰) office in New Taipei City’s (新北市) Tucheng District (土城) on Friday last week before boarding a plane to China.

The pair were detained in Zhuhai, in China’s Guangdong Province, and repatriated to Taiwan on Tuesday.

Ma visited the National Police Agency on Thursday to present awards to police who tracked down the suspects.

He yesterday applauded the police for cracking the case within four days, and praised the contribution of the Agreement on Joint Cross-Strait Crime-Fighting and Mutual Judicial Assistance in 2009 to solving the case.

“The assistance from the Ministry of Public Security in China also helped us crack the case very fast. I want to express my appreciation for their help,” Ma said.

Police should step-up security measures and pay greater attention to safety in public spaces, Ma added.